Timing of Bruins' Claude Julien Firing Was Weak

The struggling Boston Bruins have axed the winningest coach in franchise history.

Claude Julien was relieved of his duties on Tuesday after a decade behind the Bruins bench. Despite his longevity and unparalleled success through 10 seasons at the helm, the team made the announcement by releasing a 5 AM tweet accompanied by a link to an NHL.com press release on the same day the Patriots' Super Bowl victory parade will be hawking every single piece of media attention within a stick's length of downtown Boston.

What a way way to say goodbye to arguably the best coach in franchise history. In 759 games behind the bench, Julien was 419-246-94 over 10 seasons and was the league's longest-tenured head coach at the time of his firing, a title now belonging to the Blackhawks' Joel Quenneville. Assistant coach Bruce Cassidy will take over the interim head coaching duties.

I'm sure the Patriots' Super Bowl parade had nothing to do with the timing of the Claude Julien news.

— Amalie Benjamin (@AmalieBenjamin)February 7, 2017

Julien, a native of Blind River, Ontario, twice led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final while capturing the club's first championship in nearly 40 years in 2011. He helped Boston earn 117 points and capture the Presidents' Trophy as the league's top regular-season team in 2014, while the 56-year-old captured the Jack Adams award as the NHL's top coach in 2009.

Julien became the all-time Bruins leader for victories by a coach last season and his 538 career victories place him No. 21 on the all-time wins list. Though the Bruins struggled to find consistency this season, the team sits among the NHL's best in most key possession metrics, evidence that he's been able to work magic with the sub-par roster he's been granted the past two-plus seasons.

Best possession team in the NHL fired its coach. That hasn't happened since -- ever — Matt Larkin (@THNMattLarkin)February 7, 2017

The writing has been on the wall since GM Peter Chiarelli was relieved of his duties in 2015, but the cowardly manner in which higher-ups—including president Cam Neely and GM Don Sweeney—handled Julien's departure is almost cringeworthy. The 5 AM tweet was accompanied by no visible mention of the news on the team's own website until sometime after 9 AM. Their last game was a 6-5 loss to Toronto on Saturday, yet they waited three days—until the morning of the Patriots' Super Bowl parade—to make the announcement.

The team held a press conference at 1130 AM on Tuesday and conveniently, I'm sure, the Patriots parade started just 30 minutes earlier. With all eyes of Boston's sports media and fans sharply focused on the Pats' thrilling Super Bowl victory and subsequent celebrations, Neely, Sweeney and the rest of Bruins' management made sure the news would be lost deep in the shadows cast from the city's newest championship team. With another three days until their next game, the club easily could have picked a better time to drop the axe, one that would've shown an ounce of respect to the best coach your franchise has ever had.

"We had a couple of days off, and we have two days of practice before we (play) a few games, and then we have a real opportunity to step back from the emotion of this and allow the players to get away and vacate mentally and physically," Sweeney said of Julien's firing. "I felt there was an opportunity today and tomorrow to get their feet in the ground for a practice environment, which we haven't had.

"I apologize that it fell on a day where obviously New England is incredibly excited, but I didn't make the schedule."

Showing just how respected Julien is around the league, some fellow coaches—including Toronto's head coach and the Dallas Stars' bench boss—voiced their opinion on the firing of one of the NHL's best.

Stars coach Lindy Ruff on Julien firing: 'He's a great coach but even more he's a great person. I know players love playing for him…'

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun)February 7, 2017

Babcock on Julien: When you make these decisions, you better have a guy in line that's better than that guy. Not many, I can tell you that.

— Dave McCarthy (@DaveAMcCarthy)February 7, 2017

Julien is the fourth NHL bench boss to be fired this season, joining coaching casualties Gerard Gallant, Jack Capuano and Ken Hitchcock, and is now considered (along with Gallant and Hitchcock) a front runner for the expansion Vegas Golden Knights job.